WASHINGTON – Attorneys with Pacific Justice Institute and Alliance Defending Freedom asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to take the case of a Christian, family-run Korean spa, which the state of Washington said must allow males who identify as women into its nude, female-only facility.
Sun Lee and his family own Olympus Spa, which offers traditional jjimjilbang treatments rooted in centuries of Korean culture: communal steam rooms, warm soaking pools, and the ancient practice of seshin, a full-body scrub performed by employees called ddemiri in an open communal space where all patrons are fully nude. Because nudity is not incidental but central to the services the spa provides, and because the spa’s owners hold sincere Christian convictions that men and women should not be unclothed together outside of marriage, Olympus Spa has always admitted only female patrons and hires only female employees.
That policy protected the privacy of women and girls for more than two decades. Then, in 2020, a male who identifies as a woman filed a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission, seeking to use the spa’s communal area with nude female patrons as young as 13. The owners couldn’t agree because of their female-only entrance policy. But the commission decided that the spa’s policy violated the state’s public-accommodation law by excluding based on “gender expression or identity.” The commission threatened to refer the spa to the attorney general for prosecution and gave the family 10 days to change its policies or close its doors.
“It is an abuse and perversion of the public accommodation laws to give biological males access to the intimate spaces of unconsenting females in a state of full or partial undress. No woman or girl should have to give up her right to bodily privacy and safety to avoid offending a man. That’s wrong, and it puts women and girls in harm’s way,” said PJI Chief Counsel Kevin Snider.
“Based on a single complaint by a male who may never even have visited the spa, Washington state decided its views on gender identity must override a centuries-old cultural practice and deep religious conviction, turning its enforcement power against a Korean family’s small business,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch. “The Lee family was living the American dream while staying true to their Korean heritage and Christian values. Now, the state is turning their lives into a nightmare, insisting they compromise not only their deeply help religious beliefs but also the privacy and safety of women and girls as young as 13 who visit the spa. The First Amendment forbids all that, which is why we’re urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Lee family’s case.”
“A family of Christian immigrants—who fled Korea hoping for greater religious freedom—now stand to lose their livelihood or the ability to practice their faith because the State of Washington insists on dictating that males who identify as women be admitted into a female-only nude spa,” the petition filed with the Supreme Court in Olympus Spa v. Armstrong explains.
A sharply divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit dismissed the spa’s lawsuit, holding the First Amendment did not protect the spa from fines and prosecution and prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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